


dinner plans

by doctorkaitlyn



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Canonical Character Death, Episode: s01e09 Finish the Song, F/F, Pre-Relationship, mentioned animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 10:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7680373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorkaitlyn/pseuds/doctorkaitlyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're back early," Emily says, glancing down at her watch.  </p>
<p>"Yeah, well, I got what I needed and got out," Tulip retorts, taking a few steps, nudging a now empty bird cage with her toe.  "So what the hell are you doing?"  </p>
<p>(or, in which Tulip is the one to find Emily in the backyard after she feeds Miles to Cassidy.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	dinner plans

"You're free now." 

The small rabbit, beady red eyes nearly buried underneath unruly salt and paper fur, just _stares_ at her, nose violently twitching. Even when its companion hops over the edge of the box and makes a beeline for the chain link fence stretching across the back of the yard, it simply stays still, staring up at Emily, oblivious to how close it came to a violent death. 

"C'mon," Emily groans, reaching out to poke the rabbit in the shoulder. She'll have to leave to pick up the kids in two hours and while the rest of the smaller animals have already disappeared under the fence or towards the road, there are still a few chickens and cats that she needs to rehome before she can head over to the school. "C'mon, _please_ move." 

"What the hell are you doing?" 

Emily spins around, loses her balance and cants over onto her hip. Tulip is standing at the side of the house, arms crossed over her chest, dark eyes flicking from the rabbit to Emily and back again. 

"You're back early," Emily says, glancing down at her watch. 

"Yeah, well, I got what I needed and got out," Tulip retorts, taking a few steps and nudging an empty bird cage with her boot. "So what the hell are you doing?" 

"We don't need them anymore," Emily replies, just as the shaggy rabbit finally clambers over the edge of the box and begins to waddle away. "Cassidy fed. _Really_ fed. He might need a bit more, but a raw steak will probably fix him up just fine." 

Tulip's whole body stiffens, her eyebrows draw together, and her hands drop to her sides, curl into fists. It's far from the reaction Emily was expecting and she scoots backwards a few inches. 

"My uncle?" Tulip asks, voice low and steady and possibly the most dangerous thing Emily has heard in her whole life. "Was it-"

"No!" Emily interrupts, more horrified that Tulip would jump to that conclusion than she is at herself for feeding someone to a vampire. "No. Your uncle is fine. Still sleepin' on the couch. Snoring loud enough to bring the house down. It was someone else." 

Tulip's fingers slide away from her palms and she raises an eyebrow. 

"Really," she says flatly, a statement rather than a question. Emily nods and when Tulip turns and enters the house through the back door, Emily follows her. 

She can smell the room even before she sees it. When she reaches the hallway, Tulip is a shadow in the door, which is pulled open a foot. Decay and blood and something even more rotten, something she can only associate with suffering, floats down the hallway and for a moment, she feels like she's back in high school, standing in the lobby of Mr. Quincannon's processing plant on a field trip.

The smell is identical. All that's missing is the petrified screams of the cows going to slaughter. 

"Well, shit," Tulip says quietly as Emily moves to stand behind her. "Isn't that-" 

"Yeah," she whispers, swallowing around the boulder sized lump in her throat. "It is". 

The bedroom looks like a tornado has swept through it. Desiccated animal corpses litter the floor like landmines. Bed sheets and clothes have been tossed from one corner to the other and blood is streaked across every possible surface. The curtains and carpets are mottled with it and there are dark, slimy clumps of viscera sitting on the dressers. 

Based on the thick, _wet_ sounds coming from the corner of the room, where Emily can only see a pale sliver of Cassidy's back, he's still snacking on some of that viscera.

Miles' corpse (or what's left of it, at least), is only visible from the waist up; the rest is hidden behind the bed. His chest has been emptied out, scooped clean, and his whole face is a mask of drying blood. His hair is clotted with it. Before she can look any closer, Tulip pulls the door shut and slams the deadbolt back into place. She leans back against the wall and crosses her arms over her chest. In the dimness of the hallway, it's impossible to read her face, although Emily isn't sure if she'd have much more luck figuring it out if they were standing in broad daylight. 

"I thought you said he was cool," Tulip says, glancing over at the door. Even with it securely closed, the slurping sounds of Cassidy eating are still a little too loud for Emily to feel truly safe. 

"I lied," she replies. She means to stop there; that should be sufficient enough for Tulip, who probably has a thousand other things to do that are more important than listen to Emily spill the details of her pathetic love life. But she's never told anyone else; not Jesse, not any of the people at church, not her mother. She's never told anyone about Miles, really, how much she resented his presence in her life, even when she appreciated it on a purely practical level. 

It's probably not a very fitting eulogy for him, and she knows that it's wrong to speak ill of the dead but regardless, when she opens her mouth, it all spills out. 

"I never liked him. I mean, not really. It was nice to have someone around to help with the kids, their homework and the dishes, that kind of thing. But he was always so _insistent_. And weak. The way he let Mr. Quincannon just take over Jesse's church like that, how he let the whole town turn it into some kind of party, it was horrible. And that was the kind of man he really was. I think the only reason I let him stay so long was... well, because..." 

"Because he was a warm body when you needed one," Tulip finishes for her. 

"Yeah," Emily says, flushing with what might be shame or guilt or anger. Maybe it's all the above and a little bit more. "Yeah. That's why." For a few moments, neither of them say anything. They simply stay still, leaning against opposite walls of the stinking hallway. Emily keeps her gaze fixed on the carpet, but she can feel Tulip's eyes on her, burning like branding irons. It's intense, far more intense than Emily is used to, but it doesn't feel like Tulip's other stares, the _I could kill you_ stares she brandishes like a weapon or the _are you fucking kidding me?_ ones she throws out regularly. 

Emily's not sure what this kind of stare means. She decides to simply appreciate it. 

"When do you gotta pick up your kids?" Tulip finally asks, drawl breaking through the silence. 

"Hour and a half or so," Emily says, going by her internal clock rather than the one on her wrist; it's a holdover from her teenage years and with no glowing hands or numbers, there's no way she could make it out unless it was smack in front of her eyes. "Why?" 

"'Cause I wanna make you dinner," Tulip says with a shrug. Emily's mouth immediately fills with the phantom taste of vanilla hash browns and while she thinks that she manages to keep her expression neutral, Tulip scoffs and takes the sleeve of Emily's sweater, pulling her down the hall, away from Cassidy's chamber. 

"It'll be better than last time. At least, the food will be. Jesse might show up and be an asshole again. Alright?" 

Now that they're in the living room, Emily notices the darker spots speckling Tulip's jacket. They're unmistakably blood, fresh by the looks of it, almost certainly from whoever Tulip went to kill. 

In another life, maybe only a few days ago, that would have been enough to make Emily run for the door, retreat to the walls of her bedroom or to the church to pray. 

Instead, she simply nods and smiles. 

"Okay. Dinner sounds good."

**Author's Note:**

> as always, I can be found on [tumblr.](http://banshee-cheekbones.tumblr.com/) :)


End file.
